Patrick Bateman is a racist, misogynist businessman that idolizes Donald Trump—one of countless others; you likely know a few Batemans yourself. Which is exactly the point: in a society where individuality has no meaning and names serve merely as interchangeable labels that barely allow one to distinguish between entities in the otherwise homogenous mass of vapid yuppie archetypes, the only thing that stands out about Bateman is the fact that he is a serial killer. Even then that trait only separates him from his colleagues in so far as it illustrates that he is the most basic among them. They are all identical in their pursuit of vanity, status and cruelty, yet he chose the simplest and most immediate way of expressing the latter: murder. Overall "American Psycho" is a rare and revolting window into the thoughts of the phantom of a man hollowed out by the rampant materialism of the late 80s.